Buckingham Palace guard slips and falls

This is the embarrassing moment a Buckingham Palace guard slipped and fell in front of hundreds of tourists as he took up position in his sentry box.

The Queen’s Guard was left red-faced as he slipped on a manhole cover during the famous Changing of the Guard.

He lost his footing and slid sideways, knocked his bearskin on the side of the box and dropped his rifle. The soldier quickly scrambled to his feet as his colleagues marched past as if nothing had happened. But the young guard started to blush as he peered at the crowd from under his bearskin and realised how many people had seen his slapstick moment.

David, 50, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said: “I was with my family for a trip to London and I thought I’d take some pictures of the changing of the guards.

“The first group changed successfully, without any problems, and so I decided to video the next group doing it.

“I didn’t expect anything like this to happen – he went flying. There were quite a few people around and there were a lot of gasps as he went down.

“I think he just slipped on a manhole cover, he looked so embarrassed.”

The unnamed solider is thought to have slipped because of the metal protectors nailed to the soles of his boots.

Tourists gather in their thousands to watch the changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace at 11:30am every day in the summer and every other day in the winter.

The Guard comprises two detachments, one each for Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace, under the command of the Captain of The Queen’s Guard. Contrary to popular belief they are not purely ceremonial and are fully operational soldiers.

The Ministry of Defence said they would not comment on ‘a young man falling over while doing his job’.